The Truth About Outsourcing Social Media - Why, What, And How

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Are you tired of trawling through your news feed just to find that one "non spammer" who would be good to connect with?

Do you get that insignificant feeling when you have been through your Twitter feed RT'ing, replying and liking only for it to refresh 2 minutes later with a whole new barrage of content?

Is it frustrating when you get the comment notification on your Instagram account only realize that wasn't a human, just a server located somewhere in India?

These are usually the that drive people to outsource their social media presence.

(And I'm not talking about paying someone to provide 6kf ake followers, 6k fake likes and 5 fake RT's a day, I am talking about handing over the majority of your social media tasks to a real person)

But I am here to share the truth...

And once I have shared that truth I will take you through the Why, What and How of outsourcing your social media presence.

Why

As humans we are by our very nature, symbolic beings. Whilst running the risk of being too spiritual here we must understand the difference between real measures of success of a social media campaign:

Real Human Interactions

And the the symbolic measures of success we like to measure ourselves by:

Followers, Likes, RT's, Shares

Once understood, this immediately discredits buying fake symbols of success. As you are simply spending one symbol of success (money) on another symbol of success (followers) and not actually achieving anything (apart from wasting your own time).

Thus we are able to conclude that any activity that brings us closer to the truth behind real social media success (real human interactions), is worthwhile.

Though, we must be careful...

If your social media profiles represent you as an individual or business then obviously the real human interactions must involve you or your business.

If you are looking to outsource your social media presence to an individual that is not you or not your business then only certain tasks should be outsourced.

This is the situation which we will focus on.

What

In short, we must only outsource tasks that don't directly lead to real human interactions, as this must come directly from yourself or someone within your business.

Scheduling content

Design images for posting

Alignment of social updates with targeted keywords

Ensuring social content is native to each network

Ensuring a consistent posting schedule

Liking and sharing on Facebook

Liking and retweeting on Twitter

Liking and following on Instagram

Liking and sharing on LinkedIn

Pinning and organising Pins/Board on Pinterest

Hashtag research

Now we are aware of why and what we should be outsourcing, we must learn how to do so effectively...

How

After spending 5 years outsourcing in both the corporate and startup worlds I have defined a pretty flawless process (in my opinion ;)) and like to call it:

Efficient Outsourcing

1. Identify Tasks To Be Outsourced

Fortunately, I have already done this for you in the "How" stage above.

However, if there are other tasks within your business that you think could be "outsourceable", download this tool that will help you identify which tasks and processes within your role/business are "outsource-able".

2. Perform Tasks To Be Outsourced

In order to optimize the process, train your "outsourcer" effectively and to understand the time requirements of each task you MUST be completely proficient in the task itself.

3. Create Working Procedures

Each process that is to be outsourced must have an associated Working Procedure (here is a template) - a document detailing exactly how the process is performed.

For bonus points, you can use Screenflow to create videos of you or someone in your team completing the process.

4. Train Your Team

As the individual that has created the Working Procedure for the process it is your responsibility to train the person who will be taking the responsibility in the future.

The training will occur in three distinct stages:

Introduction - Talk your "outsourcer" through the Working Procedure you have created

Forward Job Shadowing - Perform the working procedure whilst your "outsourcer" is watching either in person or using screen share software

The truth about outsourcing social media accompanied by the why, what and how.

And the glorious result of outsourcing these non relationship building tasks?

100% of your time invested in social media will be spent on the task that REALLY matters:

Real Human Interactions

If you have any questions or queries regarding whether you should/should not outsource your social media presence, drop a link to your website and social media profiles in the comment box below and I will go through personally to provide advice!